Christopher Kane

The #MeToo and Time’s Up movements are such sensitive topics that even approaching them in a show review feels delicate. Not for Christopher Kane. “I’ve always been about human behaviour, and I’ve always had some sort of sexual behaviour in the collections,” he said after a show that fearlessly tackled the troubled relationship with sex embodied by this moment in time. An educational voice on the soundtrack said things like, “Experience more sensual play,” and, “The complete guide to love-making,” referencing The Joy of Sex by Alex Comfort, first published in 1972. The garments responded with déshabillé panache: erotic lace slips, bat-winged dominatrix leather dresses, and nipped-in power tailoring with cut-outs galore. Every piece was sexually suggestive, like the hacked-up shoulder of an otherwise defeminising knit revealing the bra strap, or an enveloping black greatcoat with a slit so high you didn’t know where to look.

“I’m not getting into the whole moment we’re in, but the fact is, yeah, it’s human behaviour and to me it’s fascinating,” Kane said. “It was done in a very beautiful, provocative, sensual way. It’s always a power woman for me.” He was right about that. His garments were bejewelled in crystals – some forming entire cage dresses – which repeatedly cemented a sophisticated sense of glamour in the room. What could have been a sleazy affair wasn’t, not just because Kane masters the art of balancing his expressions, but because this sexually volatile moment in time has made us all so aware of our own gaze that we’re looking at old signals with new eyes. “It’s a creative process and I’m not going to stop being myself or feeling the way I feel,” Kane asserted. “It’s not to in any way disrespect anything that’s happening, but every season there’s always an element of sexual and human behaviour, and that’s just reality.”

He didn’t directly pose any questions or statements after the show, even if it featured jumpers with the words “Special” and “More Joy” on them. But as the first collection that’s dealt with our heightened sense of corporeal watchfulness, Kane broke the silence on a debate that’s painfully necessary at this point in fashion, this all-empowered image industry: what constitutes sexy clothes in a world where Time’s Up? And are we even supposed to call them "sexy" anymore? Where do male designers even exist in this debate? In an autumn/winter 2018 season that’s so far chosen to work through the sex-centric zeitgeist by way of glamour and its inevitable escapism, you’ve got to give it up to Kane for going where no designer has ventured until now.